Many sentences flow awkwardly, and words and punctuation are often doubled or misused entirely. Now that I'm older, a lot of the themes make a lot more sense to me: character motivations political machinations are a lot clearer and easier to follow than when I was younger. I'm glad for that, because it made the reread worthwhile, but it's also quite sobering as it prompts a reflection on one's life choices and brings to light how quickly things change. In a lot of ways, this is a story about getting older, and seeing that from the lens of my 13-year-old self and present day, the story hits me in a different way. It's a well-developed and deeply-intertwined sequence of events with all the right payoffs and 'aha' moments. Sometimes it's awkward and feels forced, but if you have no prior knowledge of such old Magic: the Gathering lore, you won't even notice. In my first reading, I was excited to see the plot unfold, but this time I found myself stopping to point out, 'oh that's this card' every single time an obligatory name is mentioned.

I used to claim that you don't need to know anything about Magic to love this story, and while that's technically true, it seems like this novel was actually written with the assumption that every single card in the entire Antiquities expansion must get name-dropped, no exceptions. If you know anything about Magic: the Gathering, you probably know that the epic continent-spanning battle between Urza and Mishra is one of the most iconic and integral elements of Magic's history. My entire life I would have called this my favorite book, but now that I've got so many more stories under my belt and given this a critical look, I'm inclined to reconsider.įirst of all, this story had to exist. I have to admit, above all else, that it has not aged as well as I would have liked.

I read this book for the first time 15 years ago, when I got the entire Artifacts Cycle for Christmas. I loved this book, not for its content, but because of the impact it had on me.

The Brothers' War by Jeff Grubb